The Beach

By Yvonne Bloor

Set in the 1960's in a mining village near the coastline of South Shields. The Gibson family live in their quaint cottage by the sea.

Their perfect life is interrupted so tragically, their lives would be never the same. Jacqueline Gibson's spirit becomes fragile but not broken as her faith

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yvonne Bloor
• Release date: Jan 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9781916981775

Book preview

Chapter 1

It was a wet and windy day as Jacqueline looked out of her bedroom window in the threbedroomed cottage, which she shared with her husband Declan and their three children, Emily, Niamh, and Colm. The Gibsons’ household was always full of energy. Jacqueline was up early that morning in January 1962, as the rest of the family were sleeping in their beds. Jacqueline was preparing for her usual Sunday visit to church at St Bernadette Roman Catholic Church. The children were not that enthusiastic but did attend church from time to time. Declan didn’t really aspire to Sundays being a day of rest, as he was a working miner, a deputy manager, and only knew Sundays as a day of work, at least most Sunday mornings. He had the constitution of an ox and worked hard to provide for his family.  

Emily was the oldest child, aged fifteen. She was a shy-natured girl. She sat brushing her long dark hair that would fall to the middle of her back. How she loved her arts and crafts.  A fair contrast to her younger sister who was thirteen years old. As Niamh was an extrovert, you could say she was the voice of the family, as Niamh would take every opportunity to read in front of an audience. Another book, our Niamh! Must you! Emily would sigh.

They had a younger brother, Colm, ten years old. He was the mischievous one of them all, with his thick set of brown hair. It was always anything will do with Colm. He would just brush his hair with his hands and put his cap on, for he loved his Newcastle football team and couldn’t wait to go the football matches with this dad and Uncle Dylan. He wouldn’t been seen without his favourite black and white cap; he was a typical lad who loved to go out with his friends and explore and wander around the beachy heads along the coastline. Being a good artist, he loved to sketch out the birds by the sea.

The Gibsons were a close family and they shared everything together, even their disagreements, and there were some, but they always seemed to mend everything before bedtime; that was the rule of the house. 

The fresh winds were picking up and Jacqueline was late as she rushed off to Mass. She always took a moment to look across to Trow Rocks that stood firmly in the sea. It always reminded her of a beautiful painting, so elegant as the wind lashed out and flirted with the rocks. Jacqueline stood and watched with amazement as the water caressed itself around the magnificent cliffs. Jacqueline would always find the poetic meaning in a beautiful landscape, for South Shields had a multitude of beautiful landmarks, not to mention the great Disappearing Gun mounted with pride, a symbolic creature resonating across the land searing in the distance. Oh, but it was one of those days! The wind was lashing loudly, and the sea was whimpering, and the waves were getting higher…  The sea and its romantic effect, after all, is nature at his best. Jacqueline smiled to herself as she entered church and thanked God for the beautiful life she had.  

As Mass ended, Jacqueline met up with her dear friends Lydia and Polly at the coffee morning which was a ritual after Mass. They always brought cakes and biscuits for the priest, Fr Donnelly, and other members of the church.  The tables were always carefully set out after Mass, each table having its individual tablecloths to demonstrate the owner. The members of the coffee morning were selective, as they were the ones who inherited the coffee morning ritual from many years ago. They took pride in the tables which included homemade biscuits, scones, and every cake you could think of. Joan, Gloria, Lydia and Polly were the selected few to make up their tables. Jacqueline contributed with her skill of cake making which she candidly displayed at the back of the room, which everyone took advantage of. Fr Donnelly always hogged the cake stand… 

The conversation around the room began rather intensely, as there was always the same group talking over one another. Jacqueline gazed over to the bun stand, and she smiled and slowly exited the room so as not to be noticed; Jacqueline was not going to be caught up in the intense conversations of who baked the best. It is time to head home for lunch,, she said to herself as she caught Fr Donnelly’s eye and waved her usual signal. Fr Donnelly acknowledged the signal and waved back.  

Sunday lunch at the Gibsons’ was always a treat for the family because Jacqueline was renowned for the best Yorkshire puddings in the land. They loved it! Also, the pudding, apple crumble and custard, never failed to impress.  As the family sat around the roaring coal fire blistering away, the conversations flowed as the Gibsons always talked to one another.

Emily shouted up to show her new crochet pattern. Do you like it, Mam? I am making this for you.

Aww, pet, that is so lovely. It will look beautiful on the table.

Emily’s creativity with a needle, thread, and knitting needles always amazed her mam, but she was not blessed academically. Jacqueline was so close to her first-born, having had a difficult birth at home.  

There was always time for reading, and Niamh once again would grasp the opportunity of reading out loud.  As they all sat around the fireside, Niamh began reciting one of her favourite poems, ‘Stop all the Clocks’, by WH Auden. She came across the book at the local library, as she was always there.

Emily spouted up, Ooh that’s such a sad poem.

Niamh replied, It is, but it’s showing a lot of passion, emotion!  The feelings of loss! The author is telling us that we must all stand still and motionless for that moment in time, it’s so meaningful as she jumps up! It’s the depth of the writer that gets you!

Alright, our Niamh, their father said as he put his hand on her shoulder. Let’s simmer down with those emotions, shall we.

Niamh gasped and sat down with her book in hand. She loved to explore the characters and plots, and to figure out what the author was trying to say to her.

Jacqueline looked across at Niamh with loving eyes and said, You are a dreamer of imagination, just like your mam.

Colm looked on pensively. Nothing deterred Colm. He just murmurs. Cannot understand what you are on about? I am off to call on Tom to play a game of footie… Tom was his best friend.  Declan was lost in his newspaper; after all, it was a Sunday afternoon…

Colm was the only one yet to be confirmed at the Catholic Church, and he was not looking forward to it. He felt it was OK to say your prayers before bed and that should be enough, bless him.

Jacqueline sat Colm down and said, It’s not going to happen straightaway. You will have to go through the process first, as you know. Your teacher would have spoken about it, I am sure.

She may have, Colm said, but I probably wasn’t listening. Colm slumped back in the chair. 

Your Auntie Aileen is going to be your sponsor for your confirmation. You love your Auntie Aileen.

OK Mam… No bother… Colm said as he slumped away to his room… 

Jacqueline sent a note to Aileen asking her to come around for tea next Sunday to smooth things over with Colm. Jacqueline was so good at peace-making and turning things around. 

All was calm and cosy on a Sunday night. The family would gather. Colm came downstairs to join them all, for they were playing a game of Monopoly and there was always drama! Colm loved to wind Niamh up by jumping past his mark on the board. 

It’s eight thirty, time for bed, Declan said.

Colm turned to his dad with a disapproving look. Why can’t we stay up like Emily!

When you are fifteen, lad, you can and that’s that! Those are the rules, and you know they are.

Colm stood up, shrugged his shoulders and went up to bed, shouting at the top of the stairs, It’s not fair!

Emily was too busy with her crochet to notice the argument. She was making progress with her tablecloth and was getting excited as it was almost finished. It was a masterpiece, so delicate, almost like an oil painting. Emily was the delicate child, always suffering with her asthma. She was feisty with it though and wouldn’t give in to it… It was getting better as she was getting older.

Niamh always seem to be protective of Emily even though she was a little bit younger. They would sit cross-legged on the bedside and talk for hours sometimes. They both loved the same music and talked about fashion and new hair styles. They would practise new hair styles on each other and laugh and giggle together.  

As Jacqueline sat back in the armchair, she seemed to step back in time to when she was seventeen; a time when she was consumed with how she looked and felt, as that was the time Jacqueline had met Declan, who was eighteen months younger than her. They’d become inseparable. They knew each other inside out. Jacqueline always liked to remind Declan of the night they met at the local dance, for she loved to dance, whilst Declan wasn’t that keen. The only reason he went to the dance was because he knew Jacqueline would be there. She had caught his eye at the local post office and he’d overheard Jacqueline talking to someone in the queue about how the local dance was the sensation of the week. Declan couldn’t take his eyes off her. From that moment on he had made his mind up to go to the dance. Declan’s mates were flabbergasted! Declan Gibson going to a dance was never heard of…  

Jacqueline was a petite girl, with her brown hair and big brown eyes and an infectious smile.   Declan stood at 5ft 8ins, with his broad shoulders and dark hair. His deep brown eyes couldn’t help but notice Jacqueline on the dance floor. His friends said to him, Well, Dec, you are going to have to dance now mate, if you want to chat her up… Declan got rid of his cigarette, walked nervously towards Jacqueline, and asked her to dance. In that moment he was dancing on air…  

Declan was a young man who worked down the local pit, and Jacqueline was a scholar who was thriving in her studies. They would meet up twice a week, in secret as their parents would not have approved of Declan. It had worked well for some time until Jacqueline’s parents tried to put a stop to their meetings. She lay back in the armchair, smiling with joy as she recalled the audacity of Delcan, his passion, his belief that he had found the love of his life and no one would stop that, not even her parents. He would walk miles to meet her, and one night he got the scolding of his life! Mr Gannett, Jacqueline’s father, had caught sight of them both. Get in the house, Jacqueline, this minute! Jacqueline was too startled to not obey her father.

Declan and Mr Gannett eyed each other up and Declan got his words out fast. I am in love with your daughter, and I intend to marry her one day!

Not in my lifetime, lad. Get yourself off before I give you a good tanning!

Declan glared at Mr Gannett and took a step back, but wasn’t prepared to cause a scene as Declan was not a brawler in the street. Mr Gannett was surprised he walked away, but gave a sigh of relief as he thought to himself, I think it would have been me who got the tanning.

It was a long-haul, lengthy romance. The twists and turns, the overriding bickering from each party was never ending, but the love that Delcan and Jacqueline felt was not going to fade, and all parties realised that it was going to happen.  

It was a night of reminiscing. Declan and Jacqueline cosied up at the big open fire which was roaring away. We have come along way, pet, since that night at the dance. Happy?

I couldn’t be happier, my love. Who wouldn’t be? Three gorgeous kids and a not bad husband.

Declan grabbed Jacqueline in a wrestling match. Not bad, aye? They laughed and laughed. Bed, Mrs, as Declan rolled his eyes… 

Declan was up and out at 5am for his Monday morning shift... Jacqueline was whimpering with delight at their night together. He kissed her passionately and whispered, Love you forever.

Jacqueline replied, Love you more. Their passion, their togetherness was so apparent; their heartbeats beat as one.  They knew every inch of each other, every movement, every desire to be completed. They were perfection…  

Jacqueline lay in bed, whimpering with pleasure, and often wondered that if Declan hadn’t gone to that dance that night, she may have gone out with Ray Marston, a tall blonde lad who worked at the local butchers. He tried in vain to get Jacqueline’s attention on numerous occasions, The very thought of it now made her laugh so much. As if I would choose Ray Marston; he was a polite lad but didn’t seem to have much personality. He always talked about train spotting, he was obsessed with it. How happy I am, how blessed I am, she thought. Ooh, I best get up before the kids, get the show on the road. It’s a busy Monday ahead… 

Chapter 2 

It was Monday morning the wind had died down and the sun is shining over a very calm sea, and the golden sand is glistening. Jacqueline was lively with her daily take of chores, I must get all this rubbish in the bins ready for the bin collection, as she walked to the bottom of the garden opened the gate to take in the sea breeze. The seagulls were singing their song, as they were all flickering and flapping merrily along the beach head towards the rocks.  Jacqueline at that moment thought of all the poems she loved, and one came to mine, Shelley and his moon beams…. The sunlight clasps the earth and moonbeams kissed the sea …. How she loved the Romantic poets, Keats, being her ultimate favourite, Byron was hard to digest at times with his revolutionary approach to poetry, but she loved his poem, She walks in Beauty.  Jacqueline had her 5 minutes of solitary embrace with the sea and sand, and the romantic poets… Back to reality…. let’s get the morning organised she shouted, come on kids time you were off to school", Emily and Niamh walked together, they were always together. Emily looked up to Niamh, as she felt that her sister had all the answers and she believed everything Niamh told her. As Emily had her struggles with schoolwork, she could never understand how to make a good sentence or even write a good composition. Niamh always there to help her along whatever the situation.  Colm was laid back and took everything in his stride; he loved drawing, especially seagulls, and paid particular attention to their eyes, he would perch himself between Trow Rocks and study them awhile before putting pencil to paper, he would spend hours on Trow Rocks. If there were seagulls in his life and football Colm was one happy lad.  

No one could have foreseen the accident on Trow Rocks that was to occur that very night on the beach…. …. …… After school had finished, Colm and Tom decided to go down to the Beach. The history lesson that they sat through earlier in class had spurred them on. Mr Beckett the History teacher explored the year 1782 as he introduced the class to the favourite spots where smugglers would land and descend onto the beach, in fact some lived in the caves, poaching, expecting to find treasures and did. Colm and Tom were so attentive in class and Mr Beckett was amazed at the transformation.  

As Colm and Tom left school, they had got it into their heads that they might find some hidden treasure in one of the caves. They went high up on to the rocks as there were so many caves on top as well as below. Colm thought the high spots seemed more hidden away as they delved in and out of the rocky steps, Tom was way behind. Colm hollowed, Come on Tom mate get a shifty on man As Colm turned the rock slid and crumbled underneath him, he yelled out!! And lost his footing. He was flying… all he could think of was, I can swim! He fell headfirst into the sea…. He was underwater scrabbling…. the waves were pushing him out to sea, he was attempting to do a breaststroke as he was a good swimmer, but it was not working the waves were pushing and pushing until eventually he was pushed against a hard surface, it was a buoy he felt a rope and grabbed onto it, gasping for breath! He was way out! and the mist had started to form, and the winds had picked up, it was dark now at 6pm.  Colm was now gasping for breath! He was struggling to stay afloat!  as the waves were folding all over him…. And over him… He used his upper body strength to hold on, he was a strapping lad just like his dad.

Tom at this time was frantic, he ran and ran… back to the Gibson’s banging on the back door as it was closer to the beach. Jacqueline opened the door, Tom was panting hard, he couldn’t get his words out at first, Jacqueline told him to breathe slowly…. until eventually he calmed a little. Jacqueline went straight to Lynda’s next door to see if her husband Brian could drive to the pit head and get a message to Declan. Jacqueline was so focused she ran to the coast guard, and he alerted the lifeboat teams; and the lighthouse keeper Jake would keep a close eye on the waters to see if he could spot Colm. The fog had drawn in and it was so hard to see anything out at sea… Declan had arrived at the beach head, he got into one of the boats to go out at sea, Jacqueline wanted him to stay back and let the lifeboat team do their job, Declan wasn’t having that, he wanted to be out there. Time was of the essence! It had been three hours since the search began and the lifeboat rescue team radioed in to say, |Nothing yet, we will keep on with the search. Declan was escorted onto a dinghy towards the Rescue Team. They circled around and around… It was Declan who suggested they go on the south side of the rocks, as he knew Colm would be on the south side, he was sure of that. It was a challenge given the fog, but the lifeboat team knew their course through thick fog. 

Colm at this time was holding onto the buoy with his right hand as his left was now numb… Colm began to murmur Dear God, I know I am not a great Catholic, I do believe in you.  I promise I will go to church and enjoy my confirmation if you get me out of the sea and back home, please …. I don’t think I can hold on much longer…. I hope you got my message

The lifeboat team steered to the south side, Colm could hear someone,